TheCoverGuy.com is a successful online service providing a 24/7 access point to their clientele from coast to coast. The Cover Guy sells custom made hot tub covers and spa covers to North American clients.

When the company approached me to make their online purchasing process faster, easier and safer I was more than happy to take the challenge. The website was getting great traffic though the conversion rate was a little under average. Getting that traffic to select a cover, enter all their custom information and complete the transaction was my main goal to bring this already successful site into a league of it’s own.

There is always room for improvement
Obviously the site was getting great traffic, and I didn’t want to mess with what was already working, though I needed to understand what wasn’t working. After hiring a team to go through the purchasing process it seemed as though there were three main obstacles; confusion as to where & how to select and start building a cover, to many distractions leading them away from buying a cover, and not feeling comfy as the user didn’t know where they  were buying the hot tub cover from.

Step-by-step solution
Selecting and adding custom information to order a Hot Tub Cover are the main data that needs to be entered on the site. With this in mind I created a simplified 5 step process that would allow the user to build their custom cover and checkout with no interuptions.

1. Selecting the colour of the cover,
2. Select shape of their hot tub cover,
3. Add the dimensions of their custom cover,
4. Enter their contact and shipping information,
5. And finally select a payment type.

Minimize Distractions
Email a friend, add you to the news list, hot tub accessories, top products, all these boxes and listings where taking up valuable screen space and distracting the user from the main service of the site; selling custom hot tub covers. I removed anything in the buying process that would lead the user away from the process of building their custom cover and completing their purchase.

GEO Location
Technology is fantastic and staying ahead of the crowd by using new or experimental technology will always give your site a great lead. To provide the user with a more personal feel I added a Geo location feature that would detect the state or province that the user is from. Instead of the existing generic welcome page, this time the user sees a warming statement explaining that the Hot Tub Cover is great for the climate and weather in their region. The GEO location also allowed me to auto populate fields like city, state, zip code and the country when a user creates an account saving time for the user and ensuring correct spelling of data.

A Great Increase in Custom Spa Cover & Hot Tub Cover Sales
Three months later the site has had a drastic increase with online sales; not only from promoting the quality of the cover but also from the additional of ease of use for the client, minimizing distractions and personalizing it by GEO location welcome statements.